FacultyOur faculty members have your child’s musical interest in mind. They are some of the best in their field and are experienced in all areas of Suzuki teaching.

A graduate of the University of Montana School of Music, Lamar Blum (IL) taught public school strings in Missoula before becoming a supervisor of primary music for classroom teachers. After moving to Illinois, a private studio was more suitable to her family needs. Her exposure through Eugene Andrie to the Suzuki method offered new dimensions to the musical community of Elgin. Offering violin, viola, cello, bass and flute by Suzuki instruction was new to the area. It has led the community in music education since 1975. The Elgin program is looked upon a model program which gives Lamar the opportunity to speak to groups of teachers on studio organization. She is also sought after as a teacher and lecturer for summer and weekend institutes. Lamar is active in the Suzuki Association of the Americas as committee chair and speaker at various conferences. She has recently completed a three year term on the Association’s Board of Directors. Naming a phalaenopsis orchid for Shinichi Suzuki, she traveled to Japan in 1991 to present one to the then 92 year old educator on the Annual Grand Concert in Tokyo. At that time, she remained to take classes with Suzuki.

In 2001, Lamar retired from the Elgin Symphony Orchestra after 30 years of playing and was named a Musical Treasure of Elgin. In 1999, she was recognized by the Musician’s Union for outstanding contributions to the Music Education of Young People. She holds the 1993 Margaret Hillis Award for the Arts form the Elgin YWCA, the 1991 Entrepreneur Award from Women in Management, 1989 Music Educator of the Year by the Elgin Youth Orchestra and is listed in the 1966 Outstanding Young Women of America. Lamar is extremely grateful to be a part of the Montana Suzuki Strings Institute. She wants to help provide a wonderful Suzuki experience for each parent and child who participates.

Dr. Timothy (Terry) Durbin’s unique brand of teaching excellence makes him one of the most sought-after clinicians/conductors throughout the world. With infectious enthusiasm and inspired musicianship, he brings smiles and laughter to students throughout the United States and around the world. His dynamic teaching career includes over 800 workshops and institutes! His performance and teaching career stretches across the United States and Canada into Bermuda, Germany, Italy, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia,Thailand and Singapore, and he has recorded two CDs, including the complete chamber music of Marcel Dupre for the Naxos label. He has been appointed principal conductor of the Cave Run Symphony Orchestra beginning with the 2016 season. He has directed the South Dakota and Montana All State Orchestras. He is the holder of the American Suzuki Institute Suzuki Chair Award for 2013. Terry Durbin is also an accomplished composer and notable arranger.

Dr. Durbin holds a DMA in orchestral conducting from Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles, California, a Masters in violin performance from the University of Illinois, an undergraduate degree in violin performance from the University of Alabama, and is currently the director of the Suzuki String Program at the University of Louisville. He is a registered teacher trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

Terry lives with his wife, Sandy, on 140 acres north of Lexington, Kentucky. They have three children and two grandchildren. He believes in the magic of music’s power to enrich our lives.

Everett Goodwin (CO) began violin at age 5 and continued his studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he received a Bachelor’s of Music diploma with a violin major. In the late 1960s, Everett played in a master class for Dr. Shinichi Suzuki which eventually changed the course of Everett’s musical career. He received his MFA degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 1971. While in Pittsburgh, Everett worked at the St. Francis Hospital children’s mental health in-patient unit and was moved to dedicate his life to helping children. The inspirational speeches for the sake of children given by Dr. Suzuki two years earlier now took on deep significance for Everett. He decided to use his love of violin and his good technical training to develop his teaching ability in the Suzuki method. He had teacher training under Marge Aber in 1972 and 1973. He attended the summer institutes in Stevens Point from 1973-77. He then worked under Marge from 1978 to 1981 as a full time teacher in the American Suzuki Institute and also as violin teacher at UW Stevens Point.

In 1981 Everett became the director of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Suzuki Talent Education Program. He retired from that position in 2004. His teaching career has included work as a Suzuki clinician throughout the United States, Canada and New Zealand. He continues to teach privately and by invitation as a guest clinician. He and his wife enjoy performing chamber recitals. Playing the violin remains the great joy of Everett’s creative life.

Ms. Fitzgerald, executive director of the Barcel Suzuki String Academy, teaches violin as well as Suzuki Early Childhood Education classes. In 2006, she received the Certificate of Excellence in Studio Teaching from the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee. She is a clinician at Suzuki workshops, adjudicates for the National Federation of Music Clubs and teaches at summer Suzuki institutes in Ohio, Montana and Wisconsin. Ms. Fitzgerald graduated from the University of Evansville with a BM in Violin Performance with Suzuki Pedagogy studying under Professor Carol Dallinger and in 2010 earned a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Cardinal Stritch University.

Pam Hillygus has degrees in Music Education from Seattle Pacific University and Southern Illinois University where she studied with John Kendall. As a Suzuki student herself in the 60’s, she is grateful for the experiences music has brought her during her lifetime. She has currently retired from teaching in the public schools of 32 years and now has a teaching studio at Morgenroth Music here in Missoula. She is performing with the Glacier Symphony Orchestra and Missoula Symphony Orchestra on both violin and viola. She has also taught at Suzuki Institutes in Montana, Washington, Oregon, Missouri and Jakarta, Indonesia. When not teaching or performing, she enjoys rafting, skiing, hiking and fishing the streams of Montana.

Kathleen Spring (CO), received her Bachelor of Music degree from Wall Walla University, studied in Vienna with Eduard Melkus at the Universität für Musik and completed her Master of Music degree in violin performance with James Maurer at the University of Denver. A native of Washington State, Kathleen founded and directed a large Suzuki program there before moving to Denver in 2001. A longtime member of the American String Teacher’s Association, she was honored by the Washington ASTA chapter in 1996 as the outstanding private studio music educator of the year. As an SAA Teacher Trainer, Kathleen teaches at numerous summer institutes and is also an adjunct professor at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. In this capacity, she teaches the pedagogy courses for Lamont’s Suzuki Pedagogy Masters and Suzuki Certificate programs. Kathleen maintains a large active Suzuki studio in the Denver Metro area and directs the advanced performance group, Spring Strings, which tours both regionally and internationally.

Beth Titterington is a registered Suzuki Association of the Americas Violin Teacher Trainer and has been actively involved in the Suzuki Method since 1972, when she first heard the Japanese Talent Education Tour Ensemble (Matsumoto, Japan). Margery Aber chose her as one of the ‘honorarium students’ for the American Suzuki Institute the next year, in 1973. Since that time, she has studied with many people in the field including, most importantly, Dr. Suzuki. Ms.Titterington has served on the faculty at the Conservatory of Music / University of Missouri (KC) teaching Suzuki Method pedagogy classes and she also directs her own studio, Kansas City Talent Education. An active clinician from 1979 to the present, she has taught and lectured at hundreds of institutes and workshops across the United States, Canada and in England. Ms. Titterington has served on numerous SAA committees and was elected to the SAA Board of Directors, serving from 2006-2009. She founded the Heart of America Suzuki Association in 1979, which is a regional affiliate of the SAA.

Missouri native Bruce Walker (WA) currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Washington. He is also Music Director for the Yakima Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Cover Conductor for the Yakima Symphony Orchestra. As an instrumentalist, Mr. Walker remains very active as a solo performer, educator, adjudicator, and orchestral cellist. Mr. Walker holds baccalaureate degrees in Music Education and Cello Performance from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a master degree in Performance studying Orchestral Conducting and Cello Performance from Central Washington University. His primary teachers have been Kangho Lee and John Michel (cello) and Dr. Jeffery Meyer, Michael Jinbo, Dr. Nikolas Caoile, Kenneth Woods, and Lawrence Golan (conducting).

A composer, arranger, and bandleader for Drum Brothers, Matthew Marsolek (MT) has studied East Indian and West African music for the past 15 years with a variety of teachers, including Mukesh Desai form India and Abdoul Doumbia, Mamady Keita, Joh Camara, and Karamba Diabate from Guinea and Mali, West Africa. Matthew has experience and training in jazz, classical, and Hindustani vocal technique and is also an accomplished jazz and classical guitarist. He has also received awards of excellence form the University of Montana for his musical work with theater and dance. As a recording artist, Matthew has released projects with Drum Brothers and Mandir as well as two solo recordings, the most recent entitled, “The Bhakti Road”. A dedicated and charismatic educator, Matthew teaches classes and clinics in rhythm, and hand drumming throughout the Northwest and in Canada.

Julie Sager (MT) holds bachelors degrees from Pacific Lutheran University in Elementary and Special Education and a masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in the Arts from Lesley College. She taught in the public schools for six years in Washington state. Julie says, “Music has always been a passion in my life. I have always played in bands and sung in choirs. I cannot imagine a world without music.”

Julie has been teaching Kindermusik since 2000 after moving to Montana and having children of her own. Her two children are now wonderful teenagers and she has witnessed first-hand the enrichment that Kindermusik has brought into their lives. In 2008, Julie went back to classroom teaching as the director and Pre-K teacher at Immanuel Lutheran Preschool, thrilled that she can expose even more children to Kindermusik and incorporate those skills, concepts and activities into everyday learning with her students.

Beth Youngblood (MT) was introduced to both fiddling and improvisation while living in Asheville, N.C., in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She spent eight years touring the country and the world with the Howard Hanger Jazz Fantasy, as well as learning fiddle tunes “back porch style” from some genuine old-timers. She is the current director of the Missoula Branch of the Montana Women’s Chorus, performs as violinist/vocalist with activist singer-songwriter Judy Fjell, the world music ensemble, Mandir, is the lucky mother of 2 musically passionate sons, and maintains a full private Suzuki violin studio in Missoula.

Originally from Colorado, Loryn Zerr (MT) has lived and worked in most every state in the Western United States as well as in the US Virgin Islands. She received two degrees from the University of Montana: a B.F.A. with a ceramics emphasis, and a B.A. in Education, Art Teaching emphasis and certified K-12. She taught art for many years at The Missoula Art Museum, Sentinel High School, Sussex School, the Flagship program, and at Zootown Community Arts Center. She remains active in the local arts community and makes and shows her paintings, sculpture, and mixed media art whenever possible.